Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude claimed today that the government was "on track" to double the monetary value of business going to small- and medium-sized firms by April this year.
“Governments might be able to print money but it is SMEs who make it successful. SMEs are crucial to the future of this country and can save …

COMMENTS

Real-world cost

When awarding government contracts, I wonder whether anyone checks what proportion of the bidder's profits are taxed to the benefit of the UK exchequer..? The real cost of a contract is the amount paid to the provider, minus the proportion of that sum paid back to the government in tax by the provider. Big companies are much better at tax avoidance and offshoring, so it would be easier to justify awarding contracts to small companies if this was taken into consideration.

No icon because .. there's no beancounter icon! How about it El Reg? It would sit nicely between Spawn of Satan and the flame....

In order to get a public contract

A first class piss taker

During the corruption exposure it emerged Francis Mauds second house in London was yards from his first: http://goo.gl/JWLGt Fortunately, like all the others in the House of Corruption caught red handed, he promised he only did this exactly during the 4 year period for some mysterious reason they were only investigated for, unlike the public who have to keep records for 7 years for HMRC and who can got back indefinitely if required. So, I'm sorry but I didn't read past his name as pretty much any time I see it I just can't get past his open piss taking from the people he promised to serve.

Related SME news article this mornin

(FrenchRadio) one of the presidential candidates pointed out that all the big businesses in the EU are just trying to save costs by downsizing, off-shoring, Globalising everything to China. The only companies that are recruiting, creating local jobs in France are the SME - small and medium enterprises. Is it the same in the UK?

The banks don't seem to be making it easy for SME's to expand, hence our government doubling funding to SME's seems only good!